Gioxannes

Although the link already looks strange (ending in a directory), I was expecting to see at least something and not a 404 message ??? Page: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/application_development Broken Link: http://svnmios.midibox.org/trunk/lib/ Gio.

I can tell you in a few weeks. I am currently building the same. I have 16 switches with build in leds. The leds I want to be driven by the DOUT of the midibox as soon as it has processed the button switch. As well I have a bank of pots (16) which I want to switch offset off (not function). So pot 1 function 1, will become pot 17 function 1 when a certain switch is on. Another bank of pots (16) I want to change function when a certain button is switched on. So Pot x function 2, becomes pot x function 3. I am sure the code for this is already written somewhere for another midibox.If not I will write it myself and post it here. About the buttons. If you have switches it is easy to lit them without DOUT. Connect the LED with a 220 Ohm resistor parallel to the DIN input (which has a 10KOhm resistor). Assuming the switch has seperate pins for the LED like "http://www1.conrad.nl/scripts/wgate/zcop_nl3/~flNlc3Npb249UDkwX05MX0IyQzpDX0FHQVRFMTA6MDAwMC4wMTUyLjkwYjM5NzZjJn5odHRwX2NvbnRlbnRfY2hhcnNldD1pc28tODg1OS0xJn5TdGF0ZT0yMzg5NzU5MTc1====?~template=PCAT_AREA_S_BROWSE&mfhelp=&p_selected_area=%24ROOT&p_selected_area_fh=&perform_special_action=&glb_user_js=Y&shop=NL2&vgl_artikel_in_index=&product_show_id=&p_page_to_display=DirektSearch&~cookies=1&zhmmh_lfo=&zhmmh_area_kz=&s_haupt_kategorie=&p_searchstring=701243&p_searchstring_artnr=701243&p_searchstring_manufac_artnr=&p_search_category=alle&fh_directcall=&r3_matn=&insert_kz=&gvlon=&area_s_url=&brand=&amount=&new_item_quantity=&area_url=&direkt_aufriss_area=&p_countdown=&p_80=&p_80_category=&p_80_article=&p_next_template_after_login=&mindestbestellwert=&login=&password=&bpemail=&bpid=&url=&show_wk=&use_search=3&p_back_template=&template=&kat_save=&updatestr=&vgl_artikel_in_vgl=&titel=&darsteller=&regisseur=&anbieter=&genre=&fsk=&jahr=&jahr2=&dvd_error=X&dvd_empty_error=X&dvd_year_error=&call_dvd=&kna_news=&p_status_scenario=&documentselector=&aktiv=&gewinnspiel=&p_load_area=$ROOT&p_artikelbilder_mode=&p_sortopt=&page=&p_catalog_max_results=20" (I hope that link works, it looks fuzzy). The switch has to be programmed with serge program as on/off. Good luck!

I totally agree with you about the DAW. Even the wiki these days says that a computer with dedicated audio software is a DAW. My multitrack recorder is for the museum... To make thinks more (or less) complicated, I meant: pre-recorded midi tracks. Again I totally agree with you that a sequencer is MIDI only. I was hoping (in vain) that the sequencer would have a peek in the NRPN messages. Even so. For those who are interested. These are the diffs for fluidsynth 1.0.8 src/fluid_chan.c -- 97a98,100 > > /* Local Control On */ > SETCC(chan, LOCAL_CONTROL, 127); 234a238,243 > case LOCAL_CONTROL: > if (value == 0) { > fluid_synth_all_sounds_off(chan->synth, chan->channum); > } > break; > src/fluid_synth.c 741a742,747 > channel = synth->channel[chan]; > > /* check if we still have control over this channel */ > if (channel->cc[LOCAL_CONTROL] == 0) > return FLUID_OK; > 747,748d752 < channel = synth->channel[chan]; < This does the trick of muting channels through a MIDI LOCAL_CONTROL message (cc, 122). Now according to the specs this local control is for synths with embedded keyboard (I will call composer). It actually tells the synth to sent the midi data through the midi out and not process it itself. In case of fluidsynth it decided not to process it itself, but there is no midi out. There are several functionalities to be achieved with this. For example if you have the midi out of a composer send to different instruments at the sdame time, but want to mute one of them with a external controller. I will post this patch to the fluidsynth boys, and I am sure they want it implemnted on a synth basis and not channel. But I do not see composers sending data to multiple channels yet (through midi-routers yes)/ Anyway enough for today. Patches are tested and ok. :D Gio.

Thanks Stryd, but you misunderstood something. I know Muse (like Rosegarden, but without the audio mixing). I consider them rather equal studio/composer software. What I need is a sequencer that can play my pre-recorded tracks with the possibility to mute/unmute tracks through MidiBox. Fluxus seems to be a 3D effect generator, unless you know another program with the same name. I was hoping that Seq24 could easily be integrated with the Mb. AlsaModularSynth is a synth. I don't need. I already made my pick. Fluidsynth, of which i have and even understand the source code (and it is able to allow changes to the soundfont settings in real time). You can check this out with Swami. Now I am looking at Dino. It is very small and might suit as a basis of my writing my own dedicated sequencer... All the best to all! Gio.

Double trouble in MB land... :-[ First my cellular phone with digital camera got stolen (Samsung G800). So there are problems getting the latest pics here. >:( The second problem is controlling the sequencer by my midibox. I was planning to pre program the sequencer with tracks/patterns and mute/unmute them with buttons from my MB. But the Rosegarden sequencer is exactly as it is. A sequencer. It does not take any look at the MIDI events itself, and therefor does not take any commands from it. All is forwarded to the synth, with exception of GUI settings of filters. Unfortunately the synth (fluidsynth) does not accept cc local commands either. I downloaded the source and found NIY (Not Implemented Yet). Now I spent a few hours more and it is not so difficult to implement a per midi-channel based local on/off cc command. Would take me a day with testing, but probably the fluidsynth developers will be happy with my patch as an extra feature. This would allow me to have 16 channel with mute/unmute capabilities. Not what I actually wanted, but feasible. So I downloaded the Rosegarden source to see what can be hacked in there. The only way I see it, is to build a wrapper around it. The wrapper creates a midi-in where it takes the input from the MB, interpretes NRPN commands to change track settings in Rosegarden through API calls and forwards the rest of the events to a midi-out. Bluh! Now. NRPN command I have to implement in my MB anyway, since it it THE way to alter all possible synths settings in the fluidsynth. But building a wrapper is quite a lot of work. But now I am thinking of using a different sequencer. I can always use Rosegarden to prepare the midi-files and export them to the sequencer I will use with the MB. Then I found the SEQ24 Controller in the design concepts by Stryd_one. So: - What is the status of th SEQ24 Controller project? Is it capable fo fiddling with tracks the way I want it? - Is there another solution I am overlooking? I was really hoping to be able to have at least 64 tracks and making the composition by enabling and disabling them from my MB. Even over 16 midi channels. Maybe this is a strange place to put my question, but I have the idea quite a few people are following this thread. ;) Gio.

Absolutely Great! 8) Really, I laughed my head off. :D And yeh, you have to get fried once to know to be more careful. I got fried putting a TL in its socket while the power was on. I thought it was save since the starter on the life wire had been removed (which would have been safe). but while I put in the tube my mate put in the starter. We never found the screwdriver I had in my hand again. Don't try this yourself. I guess I was lucky. Gio. :-[

Und wie ist das weiter gegehen mit Rosegarden? Hat es funktioniert? Ich glaube is muss mir jetzt französisch lernen, dort gibst mehr info über Rosegarden und Midibox.

Good then Multimidicast it will be. To get back to the topic. I played a little with MusixGNU. A dedicated distro for musicians and artists. I think it is till too big (Don't need printers, graphics editors) and not everything is properly translated in English if at all. I did not manage to install it on the harddisk. All the nice musicial tools are there though with all the proper options. Good work.

Ik snap het voeding probleem ook niet. Je trekt een voeding uit een jaren 90 computer (zonder build in logic) en je hebt stabiele 5V met 10A en 12V een paar A. Alleen de -12 is waarschijnlijk tussen de 0.5 en 0.8A Een stevige elco op ieder pcb voor de vermogens (cq spannings-) wisselingen en het moet in orde zijn. Opnieuw: Je wilt geen moderne voeding! Gio. (Jawel, Nederlander in Griekenland).

I already found and tested the jar for editing the midibox setting. What I need is some way of adjusting the sequencer software settings with the midibox pots. Yeh, the computer is old, but I discovered that it can just handle Rosegarden as the sequencer. I could also move the actual Rosegarden app to the synth board (3086 Ghz) and use the notebook as an intelligent X terminal. But I would like to keep the synth board for the synth only.

Anybody any luck with connecting two linux machines with midi over the network? I know netjack is supposed to do the job, but the Rosegarden sequencer only takes the ALSA midi ports. I am now considering falling back to the Multimidicast software.

Hi to all, There is a small error on the uCApps.de page of the LTC module. It reads thaty the J1 has 5 pins for connection to the core. This should of course be 4. Got me puzzled for a few seconds. I though I had forgotten a port. Gio.

This looks like my kinda thing. :) I want to set up my old notebook (Pentium III 700Mhz) as a sequencer between the midibox and the synths. I just started fiddling around a custom made kernel based on Mandriva, but to erase all unnecesary drivers and tools would be quite a hassle. Tomorrow I will create some virtual machines on the server and start experimenting with Mbuntu and pure:dyne if I can find it somewhere. Anybody has an interesting link for linux - midibox communication? And then I mean API programming for the sequencer. Gio.

Sorry to hear Max, As a freelance consultant I got quite a lot of spare time lately. And the girl just got a new horse... So, there is more progress. I know I am not going to win the beauty contest with it, but I felt obliged to post at least one picture of my soldering qualities. ;) So, picture one is the backside of the core module. I noticed too late that I did not have to put in the power part since I use an external stabalised power. I will change that (take the rectifier and the 7805 out and connect the outer part of the 7805 holes with a bridge to enable the elco). And I got the lexan for the box. It's time to make things sexy. :D But this is going to be my worst part. I'm not good at it at all, so wish me luck. Gio.

Hi Skunk, Your manufacturer is probably Dell. I have exactly the same problem. But only with the AMD Athlon board (as well with the 3800+ as the 5400+), not with the Intel (Also Dell). The USB freezes after intensive use. I think it's a heat problem, but have not looked more into it. Under normal use the USB is fine. Put it under load and it hangs. If it is still possible to order, I would like 2 Chips with 2 PCB's. Gioxannes.

Hi to All, Just a line to let you know I am still working on the project. It will still take a couple of months though. On the moment I am back in my own home in Greece doing the PCB's: 3 done, 5 to go. On the pic you see a small part of the Quickshot (lower keyboard, the upper is a Yamaha). All the best, Johan.

I was actually thinking of using the power supply for the midibox as well. Including the LED's. I got a few amps spare. Normally the diskdrives get their power after the motherboard, so if I connect it to one of those sockets and add an elco I should do fine? Or is there somethiong about the midibox I do not know? (Yes, I have read the part about using computer power, but since the motherboard is running itself as well, I am not expecting a problem with this).

Ok, here come the pictures. I hope I am not floading the serverspace now. The original case 11,5 Kg. Only the parts that are needed. 2,5 Kg. In front the black usb stick [2Gb]. On the right the on/off switch. On the left the power supply with lots of spare power due to the absence of harddisks and cd/dvd drives. The case in which it all has to fit. The stuff I'm working on.

Hi Guys, Thanks for your enthousiasm about the project. Tomorrow my parcels with the equipment will arrive so I can start soldering. In the meantime I have stripped the PC into parts and took only the minimum necessary to run the synth software. I took pictures before and after, but haven't figured out how to get them here yet. But don't worry they are on their way. The synth software is running and my processor keeps at a steady 41 Celcius. The whole thing is now: - a 775 motherboard with 1GB memory on 400mhz - a Pentium Celeron 3Ghz with air cooler - a 2GB USB stick for the boot and sotware - the power supply with fan. and weights 2,5 kg (before stripping 11kg) The first step was to change everything in the BIOS for the parts no longer used - disable SATI interfaces - disable ATI/IDE interfaces - enable boot from USD-HDD as first boot device (I must admit, I kept one IDE for the CDROM to install the OS, and removed it later) I installed Mandriva Linux 2009 on the USB with the minimum software. First I though running it without X, but during the configuration phase I found out is is really nifty to have it. So I installed FVWM as window manager (small size) and X11. Other software I installed: - alsa soundcard software - jack daemon (running real time 5.2ms latency 48Khz stereo) - fluidsynth with the Unison [20Mb] and PC51f [55Mb] soundfont files and for testing purposes: - rosegarden - Qsynth for configuring fluidsynth - qjackctl to keep a graphic overview of what is connected to what The whole package is less than 1000Mb and I am sure it can be minimalized, but on the moment this is not an issue. I have to mention that it is really important to have the latency of jack under the 7ms. This because the fluidsynth software is running on an event handler with 7ms timer interrrupt. For drums which are sending fast noteon and noteoff events this could lead to both events handled at the same time resulting in no drum sounds at all (and I like the drum parts ;) ) Another way to solve this would be to install the hydrogen drumkit software and automatically lead all drum tracks to this package, but I would like to stick with fluidsynth. So much for now. No, some more notes about the OS. It must have a user clockrate of 1000hz. Some distributions use 250hz but this is not fast enough. Disable the swapfile functions. The USB is not fast enough for it anyway and it secures as well that all samples are loaded into ram. 1024Mb is more than enough. I noticed it could have been done with 512 as well. Without X11 running, all the software needs only 363Mb (running two synth instances with 75Mb of soundfile data) and I am sure this can be minimized further as well. All the best, and don't forget to have fun! Gioxannes

Hello to all! I've taken the plunge and order the MB64 kit at Mike's and a truckload of pots, faders, encoders, buttons and LED's. The idea is to create a fully functional synthesizer driven by MB. As well as to combine the keyboard and the sequencer with it in a flightcase. Sounds ambitious, but most of the setup I got already working in a prototype. Now I have collected some old computer gear and it is time to make things sexy. Currently I am using a Quickshot qs-5836 midi composer. This is a great cheap device capable of sending the whole range of midi commands, but it is a pain to alter it while recording or performing. The sequencer I use is the Linux Rosegarden studio which is running on my desktop. Great, but I has some problems playing recorded tracks while in loop mode. I guess I have to download the source and patch this in myself, but this will be for later. The softsynth I am using is the linux fluidsynth for which I have downloaded some great soundfont patches. The great part of fluidsynth is that I can change the instrument settings like modulator and velocity settings by CC commands while it is running. Currently I use the swami software for it, but again for live performance this is not sexy. So this is where the MB64 comes in handy. With some pots and encoders sending CC commands to the softsynth to alter the soundfonts settings while the sequencer is running. With the midi composer playing/recording additional tracks, and again using the MB64 to enable or disable midi tracks. If there is processor power left I try to use the MB64 as well to play with the creox audio after processing. The remaining problem I have to tackle while building is how to use the MB64 to send commands to different processor boards, but I think a midi chain will be able to handle this. I probably have to do some programming for this, but that's my profession. The parts that I will use: - an old 100mhz laptop with a broken tft screen to take the keyboard out - a proper 700mhz laptop with a broken keyboard to put the keyboard in - the quickshot midi composer - an old 3000mhz pentium motherboard - an MidiBox64 extended with encoders The setup: - the midicomposer will send played notes and effects to the sequencer - the sequencer is running on the 700mhz notebook sending its' output to the MB64 - the MB64 sends its' output to the 3000mhz motherboard running the softsynth, as well as some output to the notebook. The reason I keep the sequencer hardware seperated from the softsynth is that i will try to get the most out of the softsynth. I am currently running two softsynths with 256 polyphony capabilities on a 1.6Ghz virtual machine and I noticed it is better to take all unnecesary software and tasks off for smooth processing with a minimum of latency (currently 35ms). With the 3000mhz pentium I want to be able to run 8 synths. The sound is is currently producing is absolutely great, but again performing mouse operations on two different computers is a bugger. Plus, the whole setup is not portable. Wish me luck! The last time I was soldering a midi interface was in 1987 for a Commodore Amiga 1000.